Court Documents

It was broad daylight as the 17-year-old community college student left her bus near busy Edmondson Avenue in Catonsville. Two men in a gold SUV pulled up and forced her at gunpoint into the back seat, where police said one raped her, then stole her phone and wallet. Later that day, a young couple was stopped by a similar truck. The two men inside offered a ride, but refused to let the man and woman out until they relinquished their cash. The incidents came just about a week after an 18-year-old had told police she was abducted, robbed and sexually assaulted in what authorities believe was the same Ford Explorer.

The drug ring was taking in $14,000 a week selling cocaine and heroin in East Baltimore Street's strip club district, but court documents say Monica McCants, who ran the gang with her son, had grown concerned about one of the dancers in her network of dealers on The Block. Cherrie Gammon, who worked at Club Pussycat, owed money to gang members, and they suspected she was feeding information about the operation to police, according to prosecutors. Police found Gammon near Leakin Park on Dec. 12, 2010, suffering from five gunshot wounds.

Kyle Hogan's nightmare began in 2004 amid a child custody dispute with his estranged wife, when she took their daughter to her native Philippines and told him they weren't coming back, he said. For the next eight years, Hogan, 43, of Hanover, doggedly sought to reunite with his daughter, seeking help from police and through the Anne Arundel County courts; at one point this year, his wife was charged with abduction, court records show. Just last month, with the assistance of the Maryland State Police and other police agencies, he and his daughter, now 12, settled into a new life together in Anne Arundel County.

A great frustration of daily crime reporting is that when readers want to know the most about a shooting incident or other crime, there's often very little information available. You end up with a few paragraphs about where and when, the victim's age, and the standard line that police are investigating. That's why we scour court documents looking for cases that may - even if indirectly - shed new light on some of those incidents. Earlier this week, a 66-page affidavit in a broad drug conspiracy case was made available, and while the document consists of transcriptions of mostly bland, intercepted drug conversations, the DEA also picked up their targets discussing recent shootings in East Baltimore's Latrobe Homes area.  On March 29, at about 10:53 a.m., authorities were listening in as Corey Donnell Brown, 38, also known as "Slug," and Damond Terrell Brown, 35, known as "Ray Ray," spoke on the phone and talked about a shooting of Brandon Branch, according to the affidavit.

The six suspects arrested in a federal sting in Hampden on Thursday planned to kill a co-conspirator in a robbery who was actually an undercover ATF agent, according to court documents. Unbeknownst to the suspects, the robbery plot was a ruse - part of a series of Baltimore operations set up by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in recent months. For the second time, gunfire erupted in a public place as authorities moved in for the arrest, this time in the 3300 block of Clipper Mill Rd. Charged in the case are Tracey TheraldineÖ Betters, 20; Blake Aristotle Betters, 23; Brandon Harris, 20; John McLaurin, 22; Aaron Walker, 23; and 18-year-old IsiahÖ Benjamin.

Police have arrested a second suspect in the videotaped beating in March of a man in downtown Baltimore, charging her with using a high-heeled shoe in the attack and slapping the victim after he had been knocked unconscious. Authorities are still looking for two other people in the assault on the 31-year-old visitor from Virginia who was stripped of his clothes and left unconscious and naked on North Calvert Street in front of the city courthouse. The graphic video, which was posted on the Internet, has horrified police and residents alike because of its brutal images and what appears to be an unprovoked attack on a man who told police he was intoxicated and was trying to find his Mount Vernon hotel.

Carl O. Snowden, the civil rights chief for the Maryland attorney general's office who was arrested on a drug charge last week, was in a car with a convicted felon in Druid Hill Park when city police officers smelled marijuana, according to court documents released Monday. Two officers said in a charging document that they pulled up in an unmarked car Thursday afternoon, approached a 2010 Honda Pilot with all four windows rolled down, and smelled "a strong odor" of marijuana coming from inside.

A 23 r d suspect has been charged in an indictment against the Maryland-based prison gang Dead Man Inc., according to documents recently unsealed in federal court. Kevin Bales, whose age and address are not listed in court documents, was arrested and charged in a recent superseding indictment with participating in a racketeering conspiracy including murder for hire, extortion and drug dealing. Authorities say Dead Man Inc. is an offshoot of the Black Guerilla Family gang that was formed for white inmates in Maryland prisons, and later spread into the streets and other states.

When Antonio Malone needed $15,000 to pay off the assailants who stormed his West Baltimore rowhouse and demanded money and heroin, a gang leader told him exactly where to go. Police say he was sent to a 12 t h floor apartment at The Redwood, the home of Felicia "Snoop" Pearson. The building on South Eutaw Street, within walking distance of the Inner Harbor and featuring a large ninth-floor deck and a 'round-the-clock fitness center, seems appropriate for an actress on the much-acclaimed HBO series "The Wire.

A case in which a Parkton woman was charged with theft of a dog in 2009 was settled before the case went to trial, according to court documents. According to assistant state's attorney Jared Green, Leslie Slebzak was accused of stealing "D.O.G. ", a 1-year-old male Brittany spaniel belonging to Parkton neighbor Billie Jo Ashe. Ashe said she discoverd her dog in August 2010 tied up in Slebzak's garage and the dog had been neutered, according to Green. A criminal case was filed in Baltimore County District in July 2011.